Thread: Favorite Cunard Cruise stories!

Hmmmm, quiet over here....

Tell your favorite story about a crossing or cruise on Cunard!

Mine doesn't actually involve a cruise on QE2, but something that happened to us after we sailed on the last crossing of an Italian Line ship. We sailed from NYC on the Michaelangelo, spent the weekend at the Villa d'Este in Chernobbio, and then were flying back. Sitting in the Milan airport, my mother was taking her "medicinal" two bourbons (she HATES to fly) and struck up a conversation with the gentleman next to her. After she lamented that all the liners were gone, he suggested she cross on the QE2. At the time she (the ship, not my mother!) was relatively new, and VERY modern. My mother sniffed and said "The QE2 is nothing but a floating discotheque!" The man was slightly taken aback, but recovered, and with an amused expression introduced himself: The head of Cunard public relations....business card and all. Mom was mortified. And, in her 50 plus crusies, has never sailed with Cunard. I, however, have told her that she's missed out....so we might get her on QM2 yet....too late for her to sail on QE2, and a pity, because I think she'd love the nostalgia a trip on her would bring up....

Andrew

That's priceless, Andrew! You never know who you might meet in an airport.

I'd LOVE to tell a story about my Cunard cruises, but I haven't taken any yet...YET!

Originally Posted by blazerboy

Tell your favorite story about a crossing or cruise on Cunard!

I'm not sure that this classifies as my favourite story about Cunard although it is my most memorable - It's the story of Our first trip together on the QE2. It was so horrendous it stopped me from going on the ship for seven years!

The holiday went wrong from the time we left home. The train from York to London was late; we went to see a show, I think it was "The Beautiful Game" but I'm not sure, I'm a fan of Lloyd Webber but not of that show! We were having dinner at the Savoy Grill afterwards, when we got there I found that I'd left the voucher for the meal in the hotel; We had a drink in the hotel's bar that evening before going to bed, there was a woman in the bar who kept making loud comments about our sexuality; We had to drop the meal voucher off at the Savoy the following morning, once we arrived at Waterloo we had a long wait in an uncomfortable waiting room for the Orient Express. Once on the train the meal was mediocre at best (no choice and a poor menu - melon soup, duck with lentils and beans and a simple pudding). We got to within sight of the QE2 and sat on the train for an hour before we could get off; the train compartments were all non-smoking and we were both smokers at that time, if you're a smoker then you'll know how irritating it can be just to have to sit and not be able to smoke.

All that was before we ever got on the ship. We had a nice cabin, but that was the only thing that was nice about the whole trip. Our table in the Caronia was almost on top of the next table - that was occupied by a very friendly couple who liked to talk; They would do things like showing us their photographs whilst we were trying to order our meal - on its own not a dreadful problem, but when something similar happens at every meal you soon get fed up. We started going into dinner as late as possible in an attempt to avoid them.

The weather was bad to atrocious - It was so wet in Oslo that you couldn't even get off the ship; Geiranger Fjord was viewed from the Crystal Bar through a thick mist; We had one good day - Trondheim - I get stung by a wasp, I hate wasps!

Edinburgh is only about 2 hours from home by train - it took almost as long to get off the boat at Queensferry and into Edinburgh from there. Edinburgh was our last port, we had a day at sea and then returned to Southampton for the long train journey home - we nearly left in Edinburgh, with hindsight I wish we had!

That is only a summary of some of the problems - to be honest I don't remember a lot more. I've tried to forget the holiday as best as I can.

Good thing you gave it another try....

Sounds similar to my dissapointment at having avoided the QE2 all those years based on 'old guard snobbery' from other liner fans....

Funny now to me that she's held up as the last of a kind...end of an era, etc. Very much NOT how she was looked on then...

Andrew

Fancy meeting you all here...

Andrew, your question reminded me of a lovely interlude on my last crossing on QE2--I was travelling with my favorite travel partner and, while we were not sharing a cabin, we would meet for lunch, tea, and dinner, etc and other passengers must have assumed we were a "couple". The only downside to this was that in the evening the Gentlemen Hosts would not even approach me... And my friend does not dance. After I wondered what was going on, he apparently approached all four of them during the day and the following night I had just sat down for an after dinner drink, when they all came over at the same time to ask me to dance! I still smile when I think of it!

Thank you for the memory!

M-L

Originally Posted by NomDePlume

Fancy meeting you all here

And doesn't it make you feel at home

I say pnhmrk, a new photo. As I'm new on here, I shall be v. polite and just say that your photo on the other forum must be a very old one.........

Sir M

Originally Posted by Sir Martin

I say pnhmrk, a new photo. As I'm new on here, I shall be v. polite and just say that your photo on the other forum must be a very old one.........

Sir M

Polite? The other photo wasn't that old - it was only taken about four years ago. That was taken last Christmas in Tenerife. On my honeymoon. I've had to edit it to remove my other half as he's terribly shy and doesn't want his picture in the internet (I think he's worried about scaring young children)

Originally Posted by pnhmrk

And doesn't it make you feel at home

...getting all comfy as we speak...


Now about those furbals???

Originally Posted by blazerboy

Hmmmm, quiet over here....

Tell your favorite story about a crossing or cruise on Cunard!
Andrew

With great reluctance, I will tell you my favorite Cunard story. My very first cruise was in 1971 on the Cunard Franconia (formerly the Ivernia I believe since the original Franconia was retired prior to 1971--yes, I am now old!!!).

You hear a few tales now about people being late to return to the ship and being left stranded. Well, I don't know who the Captain was at the time, but he was (and is) a prince in my view.

There were 12 rowdy 20-somethings traveling together from New York to Bermuda and on our last day in Bermuda, we decided to bareboat charter two sail boats and to divide into two teams to race. We had a fine day--beautiful Bermuda morning and much better sailing than our usual romping and racing on the Chesapeake Bay. The losing boat was to buy "farewell" to Bermuda drinks at the Hog Penny Pub. We were to be back onboard at 4:30. We arrived at the Hog Penny about 2:00 p.m. and proceeded to have lunch, drink unknown but apparently massive quantities of Watney's Ale, and more ale, and more ale and all of a sudden it was about 5:00 p.m.

In our inebriated state, we rushed out of the door running down the hill the 2-3 blocks to the ship while loudly singing "Proud Mary" and fully expecting that our next stop would be the taxi stand to get us to the airport.

What a surprise we had!!! The entire crew and staff, including the Captain (with whom some of us had dined earlier in the week), and all of the guests had heard from someone that we were having a grand time at the Hog Penny and they were all gathered around the gangplank to greet us and believe it or not, they were all smiling and laughing with us--to this day I have never been welcomed aboard a ship in quite that fashion and am even more sure that it wouldn't happen on today's ships. What wonderful memories I have of that first cruise and I can assure you that I have never, ever, had a hangover to match the one of the infamous sailing day in Bermuda!